Swati Chopra

The month of May is when Bollywood rules the Cannes red carpet every year. My partner Jesse Randhawa and I were the few lucky ones to be invited for the 66th Cannes International Film Festival as this year was the big 100 years of Bollywood celebration at Cannes.

I have visited south of France before during my dance education days on a student exchange programme, but it was Jesse’s first visit. The day we arrived, we realised that France never felt the same, the warm welcome we received from the people at the festival, to the appreciation for simply being Indians was a wonderful feeling, we felt proud to be dancers from India.
The day we landed we got to know the itinerary and were informed that we will be walking the red carpet for four special nights. And the opening night was a big celebration as The Great Gatsby was to be shown. Cannes red carpet is one of the most talked about event in the world, where stars descend in the best of clothes and accessories. This year too it was no less, there was Leonardo Di Caprio, Jane Fonda, Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman and many more. If Hollywood can arrive in style, Bollywood can never be behind. From Vidya Balan and Nandita Das being on the jury to Amitabh Bachchan, Frieda Pinto, Mallika Sherawat, Sonam Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan walking the red carpet, we felt honoured to be included in this list of Indians.
The time of the opening ceremony was at 7 pm and as we started to get ready at around 5 pm, the sunny, warm French weather turned into British weather. It started to pour and the famous Cannes red carpet turned into a wet carpet within minutes.
We reached on our scheduled time for the red carpet, oops, wet carpet entry. Jesse dressed in an emerald green gown by Gavin Miguel looked the true Indian super model and me in my Deepak Shah of More Mischief-designed tux felt proud to be at Cannes, representing the Indian dance scene. We were introduced as the “legendary exotic” dancers from India. It was a proud, as well as an embarrassing moment for me. Countless international paparazzi went crazy clicking pictures and we wondered where to look. Day One was a learning experience I must say.
We decided to take an easy day the next morning, so we went around Cannes looking at the beautiful French Riviera, while pleasant people from almost all nationalities walked up to us and congratulated us for being there and celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. By evening it started to pour again, but on day two we were more experienced to walk the wet red carpet. Dressed yet again in a Gavin Miguel beige gown and me in Deepak Shah tux with white a bow tie, we got ready to get scrutinised for what we were wearing and how we posed.
Day three was more relaxed for us as we met Anurag Kashyap, Tejaswini Kolhapure and Rahul Bhatt who were showing their film Ugly. A beautiful sunny relaxed afternoon yet again turned cloudy and it poured again, but this time Jesse decided to give up the flowing gowns and take to a short Gavin Miguel red swarovski dress as it was just not practical to walk the wet carpet in long heavy gowns. I, too, changed my plans and wore a tux with red bow tie to lend Jesse support. We wondered if this style of no gown, but a dress will have us shot dead by the fashion police, but we were glad that the media loved us in this combination too.
The last day was like a farewell of sorts as many people from the festival requested us to come again and thanked us for our presence on the red carpet. Let me be honest, it never felt so wonderful to face the audience and cameras before. It was raining again on Day Four and with the temperature dropping to 10 degrees, Jesse decide to wear a royal blue full-sleeve Gavin Miguel dress and I chose to go Indian in a black sherwani with white churidar designed by Deepak Shah to keep me warm. The farewell introduction said “gorgeous Indian dancer-choreographer for the last time on the red carpet”. It made us realise that this fairly tale dream was to end tonight, and we would be back to our own world soon.
The entire Cannes experience was something that we both will always cherish, we don’t know if we will be called again to walk the red carpet. One thing that’s for sure is that that to represent the Indian dance community globally was truly an honour for both of us.